


Questions Haunting Me

by eloc1N



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
Genre: Angst, Gen, Link (Legend of Zelda) Needs a Hug, Sad Ending, Talking Link (Legend of Zelda)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-05 02:55:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,848
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25407268
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/eloc1N/pseuds/eloc1N
Summary: Link seeks answers from perhaps one of the only sources that could give it to him.A monk.
Comments: 4
Kudos: 27





	Questions Haunting Me

**Author's Note:**

> This work is based off of a couple things: the comic at the end of The Legend of Zelda: Hyrule Historia, a couple of fan/personal theories, and the general sense of sadness in the game when you come across ruins of a town.

Link stood in front of the shrine; the glowing orange barely seen in the sands of the desert. A sand seal barked at him to the side, and he pulled out an apple, placing it on the ground. He knew the seal would be gone when he got back out, but that’s fine—it’s done its job. The seal dug in with a crunch, barking occasionally. For a moment, that crunch sounded like a million other things from a million other lifetimes.

He tucked his golden, bejeweled shield away and pulled out his slate. The map was completely unreadable, the signal fuzzed up by the sandstorm, but that didn’t matter right now. Placing the slate on the pedestal, the shrine shook, the sands rippling around them. His blue tunic did little against the sands sneaking their way in, but at least the potion he drank kept him cool in the scorching heat. He stepped in, and went down.

Down below—far down—the air was cool, but stale. Dust motes littered above him as seen through rays of light, but surprisingly the ground was never dirty. Link passed through the pale blue light that separated him from yet another trial. As the voice of the monk spoke to him, welcoming him, he wondered yet again just how many shrines he was expected to complete in order to be at his maximum strength. It didn’t matter too much, he supposed. After all, he intended to receive some answers today.

Hand ready to grab his sword, he walked around an incline to see what the room held for him. There were no enemies, so he relaxed, but then quickly ducked as a shadow shot over him. Fortunately, it wasn’t an enemy, just a large metal ball—obviously part of the puzzle. He went up the incline, took a few tries to latch onto the ball with Magnesis, and walked towards the monk locked away on the other side of the room. He placed it up against a totem and to no one’s surprise the door to the monk opened, the path clear.

This was it; Link knew it. He would receive his answers today, here and now. The quiet _tap tap tap_ of his boots on the ground was all that was heard as he walked forward, stepping up to get close to the monk. For the hundred and twentieth time, Link reached out.

The protective screen shattered, particles whizzing about past him. He knew from experience they held no substance once he had broken them, but the part of his mind that hadn’t turned off once he woke up screamed _danger, glass, be careful_. Kema Zoos began to speak, in the strange motionless way the monks did.

“Your resourcefulness in overcoming thi—” Kema Zoos, unlike all the others, would not finish his sentence.

Standing before him, Link had pulled out his sword—the one he rended from the earth, painfully, _bleeding_ —and moved it under the face cloth of the monk. The tip of the blade just barely rested against the slim, mummified throat.

The room is silent—shrines usually are, but this silence is of a new variety. When he goes about the trial of a shrine, Link can tell the monk of the respective shrine is observing him. He feels this faint buzzing sensation, the knowledge of metaphysical eyes watching him. It feels different now. The cloth, with its single eye, bores into him. He can imagine the face beyond the covering, with its unchanging, unseeing decayed orbs. They stay like that for a moment, in this new silence, before Kema Zoos speaks.

“What are you doing, hero?”

The words are different, he can tell. Not in the obvious way in that this is his first _real_ conversation with a monk, but in the sound. It’s……

 _It’s coming from the monk, now_.

Before, the words would somehow just _be_ —he would just know them. He could feel them sit heavy in the air, but the phrases would all be in his head. This time it was an actual sound. _On the other side of the cloth, Link hears a crack_. He ignores it.

“I didn’t think you monks could say anything else.” His voice came out in a rough rasp, incapable of gentle sounds from the lack of use. “I came here to ask a question.” He paused, body stiff.

“Why?”

“Why what, hero?”

“Why all of this?! They keep sending us down here—Ganon, Zelda and I. They give us our powers, and then they make us suffer—for what?”

The corpse still didn’t move, but Link could feel the surprise in the air. Not even a twitch of a finger to show emotion, but he knew well enough that the monk hadn’t been expecting any of this.

“You remember.”

Link scoffed. “I am _cursed_ with knowledge, monk.” His sword, gleaming pale blue from the lights far above them, wavered just the tiniest amount. “I know what they do to me, to us, again and again.”

“It is the will of the goddesses.”

“Their will—” He spoke, sarcasm thick. “Where does _my_ will come into play? Where is my choice? How many times have I saved Hyrule? How many times _more_ will I save it again?”

“You signed up for this when you first held the Master Sword, many lifetimes ago, hero.”

That’s the thing—the thing that scorches through his veins with anger. When he woke up one hundred years post death and began recollecting memories, they were followed shortly after by memories of past lives. Those included his very first life—he was a knight, wronged and framed by a nobleman, then chained and whipped in the dungeons for years. When Hyrule needed him, their star knight, they came crying. _We didn’t know, we thought he was telling the truth, we need you_. They unchained him and he, a knight of his kingdom to the end, led them against the demon hoard. No one expected Hylia to descend, to give him a sword he must reforge by his hand.

She never told him that by taking up the sword, he would be bound to it for the rest of eternity. His reward in that life was bleeding out, watching the land he severed from the earth float up. His people would be safe.

Link blinked those memories away from his view. “When I go into the heavens, I do not receive my eternal rest. I always come back down here, memories wiped, and placed through more trials before I am even given my quest.” He paused for a breath that tore ragged through his throat. “Orphaning me, killing or taking from me those I love, _killing **me**_. This time was the worst of all—before they had me killed, they allowed countless others to be killed.”

“You must be made strong, hero.”

He sliced through the air with the sword in frustration before pointing it back at the husk before him. “ _At what **price**?_ It seems to me the goddesses crave _amusement!_ I’m aware of just how young they’ve made me fight before.” Neither of them missed that the Master Sword remained loyal to its wielder, despite it being held against a servant of the goddesses.

“It is the duty of the hero to save Hyrule. It is the duty of the princess to seal the beast that threatens Hyrule. It is—”

“Yes, monk, tell me what Ganon’s duty is. His _goddess given_ power, used to do what?” The room dropped in temperature at that, to Link’s surprise. Goosebumps rose along the little skin available in his armor, his cheeks flushed. His ragged, panting breath fogged up in front of him.

“It is the duty of mortals to not question the will of the goddesses, hero.”

“Am I even a mortal anymore, if my return is always promised? They have stripped me of the thing that makes me alive—death.”

Silence, true silence, pervaded the room. Neither of them spoke. Link lowered his sword—he was so _tired_. The quiet drifted around him with the dust motes. He closed his eyes, for just a moment.

Then— ** _crack_**. The sound of something snapping, followed by rubble and perhaps sand hitting the ground. He opened his eyes, readjusting his grip on his sword purely by instinct. The sight before him was not a threat, but still discomforting.

The monk had moved. Kema Zoos had placed down the ring in his hands, relaxing his position. His palms were face down in his lap. With Link now watching, the monk moved no further. They watched each other, before the monk finally spoke.

“You are asking me questions outside of even my realm of understanding. But I will tell you this—when I swore my life in service of the goddesses, I did so knowing they are imperfect.” Link shifted, surprised at the monk’s admission. “My brothers and sisters may not all share that belief, but there is no perfection, even in the form and thought of a god.”

He continued. “I have sat here for more than ten thousand years, hero. I did that knowing that I would spend it all not really living, and in the end, I would give my life to the next hero. I did it knowing that the goddesses were planning for something so horrible to happen, that you would need one hundred and twenty souls to strengthen your being.”

Link closed his eyes yet again, tightly this time. His knuckles were pained and white under his gloves as he gripped the sword. He stood that way for a few seconds, then released his tension with a loud sigh. Reopening his eyes, he moved to sheathe his sword.

“Now, hero…” The temperature in the room stabilized.

“Your resourcefulness in overcoming your trials speaks to the promise of a hero…” _Had any of this been worth it? He was back at square one._

“In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I bestow upon you my life.”

The orb bearing the Hylian crest exited Kema Zoos, the color draining from him ever so slightly. Link gritted his teeth, knowing he was about to watch yet another person pass right in front of him. As it entered him, he maintained eye contact with the monk. He deserved the respect of being seen and recognized before dying.

“You have conquered all of our trials. Having fulfilled our purpose, we monks bestow upon you this.... the warrant of the true hero.” _Would anything justify what they put him and this monk through?_

“You must now depart for the Forgotten Temple.” He paused. Link felt a deep sense of sadness in his chest before it quickly disappeared.

“May the goddesses smile upon you.”

The monk dissipates, finally joining the rest of his brothers and sisters to eternally rest. His more than ten-thousand-year journey had finally finished. Link stayed and watched until the very last particle had faded away. After the last speck disappeared, he turned to walk to the entrance.

The sadness in his chest was now his own.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading. It's a little rough because Link has to talk more than I usually peg him for to hold a conversation, but the conversation was the core of the piece so. Couldn't make an exception. 
> 
> If you like my work, consider following me on [Twitter](https://twitter.com/nicper00) for general content, or [Tumblr](https://eloc1n1cole.tumblr.com) for strictly writing and fandom content. If you want to support me, check out my [website](https://n1cole.carrd.co)!


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